Why do people object to economic inequality? The role of distributive justice and social harmony concerns as predictors of support for redistribution and collective action Katerina, Petkanopoulou Griva, Artemis-Margarita García Sánchez, Efraín Vlastou-Dimopoulou, Filyra Daoultzis, Konstantinos-Christos Willis, Guillermo B. Rodríguez Bailón, Rosa María Collective action Economic inequality Inequality of opportunities Justice Redistribution The research project was supported by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) under the ‘2nd Call for H.F.R.I. Research Projects to support Post-Doctoral Researchers’ (Project Number: 666) granted to the first author. Data collection of Study 3 was sponsored by the NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age and co-funded by the Spanish Research Agency [grant ref. AEI, PCI2020-112285] and EU and Next Generation EU. People may perceive economic inequality through moral lens, focusing on the unfair distribution of resources, or as a threat to their personal and social environment. This research examines how justice- and threat-based concerns shape reactions to economic inequality. In Study 1 (N = 358), we identify elements of inequality perceived as unjust or threatening and explore how these are organized into meaningful clusters using network analysis. We identified four overarching concerns: distributive justice, social harmony, inequality of opportunities and economic threats. Distributive justice and social harmony concerns were the most prominent, associated with perceptions of injustice and threat, respectively. Study 2 (N = 260) showed that distributive justice (but not social harmony) concerns were positively associated with collective action and support for redistribution. In Study 3 (N = 1536), perceived economic inequality was positively related to both concerns, but only distributive justice concerns consistently mediated the relationship between perceived economic inequality and support for measures to reduce inequality. In Study 4 (N = 214) exposure to distributive justice concerns, compared to social harmony and control conditions, increased support for taxing the rich and assisting the poor. Results suggest that framing economic inequality as a justice issue effectively promotes social change. 2025-04-10T08:39:18Z 2025-04-10T08:39:18Z 2025-03-14 journal article Petkanopoulou, K., Griva, A.-M., García-Sánchez, E., Vlastou- Dimopoulou, F., Daoultzis, K.-C., Willis, G. B., & Rodríguez-Bailón, R. (2025). Why do people object to economic inequality? The role of distributive justice and social harmony concerns as predictors of support for redistribution and collective action. British Journal of Social Psycholog y, 64, e12877. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12877 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/103573 10.1111/bjso.12877 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Wiley